Taylor Street Outdoor Theatre

Friday

When a cockerel apparently flies into a chicken farm, the chickens see him as an opportunity to escape their evil owners. Chicken Run is a witty, action-packed story as well as a fascinating blend of realistic, gritty images and outlandish but believable animated characters. It is a Claymation adventure from the creator of Wallace and Gromit, featuring chickens as the main characters, all with their individual sense and sensibilities. Ginger is the 'head chick', and she deviously plots to free all the chickens on the farm, preventing an otherwise certain 'Death By Chicken Pie'.

Saturday

Morgan Neville’s 20 Feet from Stardom won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. He shines a spotlight on the untold true story of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 21st century. Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Millions know their voices, but no one knows their names. We see a myriad of superstar singers interviewed and hear their take on the talent behind them. A sampling of the singers interviewed are: Mick Jagger, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder and many more. The film introduces us to some of the backup singers—stalwarts such as Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer and Tata Vega —and we get a glimpse into the conflicts, sacrifices and rewards of their lives.

Sunday

Celebrating the 30 year anniversary of The Princess Bride! This film has become one of the most iconic and loved, almost cult, pictures of the past few decades. How many of us can complete the line, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya….” Or who said, “ “As you wish.” It's no wonder The Princess Bride is such a beloved film. It's action-packed but still light-hearted, sweet but not saccharine, silly but still smart—and, of course, endlessly quotable. This classic comedy-romance introduces a number of unusual characters as it follows a peasant farmhand as he battles bumbling outlaws and an evil prince to win the hand of his one true love.

Special Events

Kicking off the season’s Salon Series at PT High School’s 350-seat auditorium, playwright, actor and educator Akuyoe Graham interviews Academy Award-winning director, Morgan Neville on stage. From Carol King to Yo-Yo Ma, Neville brings us the stories behind the language of music with over 50 films in his career. The Salon Series continues through the winter bringing dialog with experts in science, art, politics (and more) into a community setting with students and residents of Port Townsend. Free admission.

A celebration of Morgan Neville’s brilliant career opens with a clip reel created especially for PTFF by his production company, Tremolo Productions. Following is a live conversation on stage with Neville and Rocky Friedman (founder of the Rose Theatre). Next, we screen Neville’s The Music of Strangers, Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble, followed by Q&A. Remember that donors supporting PTFF by purchasing Concierge and Patron passes enter the 250-seat theatre ahead of the line.

Traditional Inupiat dance from Alaska’s North Slope kicks off our screening of Angry Inuk with dancers Lawrence and Donna Ahvakana on Friday, joined by Bryan Cole, Tom Ocktuk, Penny Ocktuk Cole and Sean Gallagher on Sunday. Their drums are round, flat, resonant and are traditionally made of membrane surrounding the liver of a bowhead whale. An aside: Sculptor Lawrence Ahvakana, graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, recreates traditional skin-stitching and parka patterns in his work, showcased in museums worldwide.

Chasing Coral, directed by Jeff Orlowski, features Zack Rago, a talented reef aquarist, scuba diver and self-described “coral nerd.” From the NYC Explorers’ Club to the Sundance Film Festival, Rago shares his clarion call to pay attention to what is happening under water. Here in Puget Sound, ocean acidification negatively impacts shellfish, including geoducks (our largest biomass) to the smallest snail– and everything else that feeds on them, both sea and land creatures. Support for this event is provided by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.

Meet David George Gordon, showcased in Bugs on the Menu. Gordon, of Seattle, travels the world as the “Bug Chef” demonstrating the art of cooking insects. Come join us by the beer garden on Taylor Street and try some delicacies! Not for the faint of heart, but rest assured, our bugs are certified by the health department as safe to eat –if you are adventurous! See Bugs on the Menu Friday Sept. 15, 9 am, Cotton Building Theatre or Saturday Sept. 16, 3:30 pm, Key City Theatre.

Capturing the imagination of the world in 1977, a tiny spaceship leaves our solar system and enters the void of deep space–an astounding feat requiring mathematic and mechanical genius. Meet the visionary scientists who pursued the dream of describing our Earth world–to others we have yet to meet. Due for national release, we have the film by special permission from the director. One screening only!

Arrive early to get a seat at the increasingly popular morning panel discussions. Previous years filmmakers have shared thoughts on artistic inspiration, most profound moments, scouting locations, getting the right shot, ideas that didn’t pan out, failed idealism and worst romantic moments. Tuck a tissue in your pocket, these are consummate storytellers.

An interview with Morgan Neville

The Port Townsend Film Festival is thrilled to introduce you to our very Special Guest, Academy Award (R)-winning producer, director, and writer of over 50 films, Morgan Neville. He won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2013 for 20 Feet From Stardom, which we are screening Saturday night at the Taylor Street Outdoor Theatre.

Here, Neville discusses these films and his craft of documentary filmmaking in an interview with Charlie Bermant.

What expectations do you have about the festival?
I’ve heard that it is a real gem. I’ve never been able to attend, so this is my year. I’ve never had a tribute like this. It’s a real honor, but maybe I’m getting to the point in my life where I can be “retrospected.”

At a festival filmmakers get to interact with people who are true film fans. They are there because they want to be there. There is something about the engagement and the energy that I love. The best festivals have a magical air to them, with real life stopping and everyone coming together.

How do you figure out what’s worth documenting?
It’s great when you have a great story to work with but that’s not always the case. Most of the work of a documentary filmmaker is to impose and prune the content into the messiness of real life.

If you listen to your own curiosity you come to realize that what you are interested in interests the people.

Both of the films you are screening have music as a central theme but are quite different.
The great thing about making a film about music is that it can be any kind of film that you want it to be. It can be about cultural politics, like Music of Strangers, or in can be about how we value craftsmen and artists, like in 20 Feet From Stardom. Music film is an umbrella title that doesn’t do justice to how many places you can take yourself.

People have asked me to do polemical films or issue films, but the thing I am most passionate about is culture. I’m interested in people who are incredibly passionate about what they do. When you engage with the musicians like Yo Yo Ma and Keith Richards you find they are brilliant people, where there is an element of childlike curiosity and innocence, When someone is really brilliant they feel they don’t know it all.

How would you compare these two films?The Music of Strangers was a very complicated film with a lot of moving parts, which used characters filmed over many years and many continents. So it felt like writing a novel, it required that level of effort. 20 Feet From Stardom was basically a massive exercise in reportage. My producer had the idea which I thought was really interesting. But when I looked around I found that no one had written a book or made a film about background singers. There was no way for me to learn about them other than to meet them.

How did you proceed?
We did 40 oral histories in order to figure to how the whole world worked. Then I understood them on a superficial level. But there were a lot of singers I spent a lot of time with who aren’t in the film. It was the same with Music of Strangers. It’s not that they didn’t have good stories. If you are making a tapestry piece, like 20 Feet or Music of Strangers the characters have to interrelate with each other in terms of what their journeys are.

You have to be pretty ruthless about cutting, there may be stuff that you love that doesn’t fit. Once you start, you are not making the film you set out to make, but the best film you can make with the material you have. If there is a tangent, so be it. In 20 Feet from Stardom there was a whole scene with Luther Vandross, but he really doesn’t belong in the film. He’s not a main character, but it was great. I just loved it.

You’ve done several Netflix projects. How is that working out?
Netflix is doing more funding of nonfiction TV and movies than anybody. They are doing it at a very high level and with great creative freedom. Netflix, along with to a lesser extent iTunes and other streaming services, have revolutionized documentary’s place in film. For years I’ve talked to people about documentaries and they’ve said “I love them but don’t know where to find them.” By putting them on a platform that makes them just as easy to watch as a comedy or an action film, a lot of people choose documentary. Because of that, these services have built a much, much bigger audience for documentaries.

I don’t think every film is meant for Netflix. Certain films benefit more from a traditional release, a theatrical release, because they need to build a conversation about them. Netflix works well if you have a subject that people know well and are interested in.

Other than streaming services, how have documentaries changed since you began?
I’ve been doing this for 20 years. When I started it was the kind of filmmaking that was kind of admired in the same way people feel about a school trip to a museum. It’s good for me, but I’m not necessarily looking forward to it. It has blossomed for many different reasons. There is the audience, the technology, and the filmmaking, more than anything. There is a lot of exciting filmmaking happening in documentaries that is pushing boundaries a lot more than on the narrative side.

When I was in high school, as a journalist, I used to love what they called the New Journalism. A lot of it was about applying the techniques of fiction writing to nonfiction storytelling. We are not at the end of that process, telling stories in this manner is a long way from being spent.

What’s next for you?The two films that I’m working on now that I can talk about are vastly different from each other, reflecting different parts of culture. One is about Orson Welles and his movie The Other Side of the Wind. He spent six years at the end of his life making a movie about a director at the end of his life. It was never finished and was a very ‘meta’ thing, as you might imagine. I have all the raw footage from the film for my documentary, which is called They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.
My second project is a documentary about Mr. Rogers.

Introducing our Film Guests

Karen Allen
PTFF is thrilled to welcome Karen back for her directorial debut of A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. based on the short story by Carson McCullers. She is an award-winning film and theatre actor and director, and has starred in films including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Starman, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Year By the Sea screened at PTFF in 2016.

Jim Bigham
Jim is a director and producer whose many awards include the international award-winning documentary, For Once In My Life. TV credits include Ballers, SNL. He was an Oscar nominee for Turner, Chasing the Dream. He joined PTFF for the 10th Anniversary of Sweet Land in 2015 which he produced. Jim joins us as a juror.

Doug Blush
Doug is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. His recent credits include, 20 Feet From Stardom, The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble screening this year at PTFF. He also supervised the 2016 Sundance Audience Award winner, JIM: The James Foley Story, screened last year at PTFF. This year, Doug has brought us The S Word, and joins us as a juror.

Ted Crockett
Ted is directing his sixth festival as the Nashville Film Festival Executive Director. He brings deep experience in all aspects of festival management, as he has worked with NashFilm since 2004. Ted has been named a top “Movers and Shakers” by Nashville Lifestyles Magazine, and Variety Magazine named him to its Top 30 Music City Impact Report. Ted joins us as a juror.

Todd Elgin
Todd has been a soundman, a cameraman, and an award-winning writer/producer/director. He has served as juror for the Durango Independent Film Festival and Nashville Film Festival and PTFF. Todd lives in Nashville and plays in a band called The Ukedelics. He joins us as a juror.

Rocky Friedman
Rocky, owner of the Rose Theatre and Rosebud Cinema, helped launch the PTFF, He has brought opera, ballet and theatre simulcasts, and silent films to Port Townsend. Rocky will be the moderator for An Evening with Morgan Neville.

Julie Anderson Friesen
Julie is the founder of Cinema Falls, an organization dedicated to building community and exhibiting indie film, world cinema and documentaries in Sioux Falls, S.D. This year, she launched sister exhibition company Cinema at the Lakes in the Great Lakes resort area. Julie is also co-owner of a post-production facility and is creative director of her marketing firm. Julie joins us as a juror.

Jon Gann
Jon is a film festival fixer–producing, programming and marketing festivals around the globe. He brought the shorts program WA2WA to PTFF for three years. This year, he created a showcase specifically for us from award-winning shorts collected from other events. Jon is the author of two books “So You Want to Start a Film Festival” and “Behind the Screens: Programmers Reveal How Film Festivals Really Work.” Jon also joins us as a juror.

Eduardo Garcia
Eduardo is a celebrity chef and the co-founder of Montana Mex, a Mexican food company. He is known as the "bionic chef" because he cooks with a prosthetic left arm, the result of a hiking accident in 2011. See his compelling story in the film, Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story. Meet Eduardo at the Q&A after his film, and possibly as a guest chef at the PTFF cheese sandwich grill.

David George Gordon
David, aka The Bug Chef, is the award-wining author of “The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook” and 18 other titles about orcas and gray whales, cockroaches, tarantulas, land snails and the Sasquatch. During a typical cooking demo, Chef Gordon invites audience members to join him in preparation of a few dishes from his cookbook. Come watch Sunday for Bugs and Beer Cooking Live!

Akuyue Graham
Akuyoe is the author of “The Little Book of Transformation/7 days to a brand new you.” She is seen in the independent films Switchboard, Faith and Dreams, The Good Wifey; and Ben and Ara. She will bring her one woman show, “Spirit Awakening” to The Key City Public Theater in January, 2018. Akuyoe interviewed Rita Coburn Whack, director of And Still I Rise, at the 2016 Focus: Women & Film, and will be the moderator of Getting to the Heart of Music: a Community Conversation with Morgan Neville.

Emily Lindin
Emily is the author of "UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir" and founder of The UnSlut Project, which uses personal story sharing to work against sexual bullying and "slut" shaming. PTFF screened her award winning film, UnSlut: A Documentary Film in 2016. Emily has been featured speaking out against "slut shaming” on television and radio including ABC, CNN, NPR and in numerous magazines and blogs. She joins us as a juror.

Harold Mintz
In 2000, Harold became one of the country's first altruistic organ donors. A short documentary: 1-800-Give-Us-Your-Kidney was screened at PTFF in 2016. Today, Harold continues to shine a light on organ donation awareness by speaking about his donation to schools and organizations around the country. Harold joins us as a juror.

Zack Rago
Zack’s passion for coral reefs began in the Hawaiian Islands were he spent his childhood summers. His infatuation with coral led to a position in the marine aquarium industry. As a talented reef aquarist and longtime scuba diver, he is dedicated to sharing the story of coral through science and art. Zack appears with Chasing Coral.

Christopher Smith
Christopher is an LA-based documentary filmmaker. His first film, TINY: A Story About Living Small premiered at SXSW in 2013 and was viewed widely around the world on Al Jazeera America, iTunes, Netflix, and Hulu. He is currently in post-production on his next two films, Current Sea and American ESPionage. Christopher joins us as a juror.

Tyler Strickland
Tyler is an accomplished film composer and award-winning music producer based in Los Angeles. He focuses much of his energy on bringing quality music to documentaries with a cause. Among a few of the most notable films he has scored are the Netflix Original documentaries; Audrie & Daisy, Hot Girls Wanted, and The Mars Generation, being screened this year at PTFF. Tyler joins us as a juror.

Feature Documentaries

Seal hunting, a critical part of Inuit life, has been controversial among those outside the culture for a long time. Now, armed with social media, a sense of humor and justice, Inuit are challenging anti-sealing groups. Wryly tackling both misinformation and aggressive appeals to emotion, filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril equips herself and her community with the power of social media — to reframe seal hunting as a cultural issue.

Thirty years ago, a group of improbable heroes came together on a mission both medical and moral, and highly unlikely to succeed. Their goal was to make high-quality healthcare available to everyone, even in the world’s poorest countries. Fighting entrenched disease, political and bureaucratic machinery, and the “charity-industrial complex” itself, these crusaders insisted that health care is basic human right in every society and in doing so, changed the lives of millions of people across the globe.

An estimated two billion people eat insects, a source of complete protein and essential nutrients, worldwide. With rising temperatures, desertification and population growth threatening world food supplies, the west is abuzz with insect cuisine. Cricket farms are the new rage. The movement is growing exponentially, especially with open-minded millennials. Seattle-based bug chef, David George Gordon demonstrates cooking insect edibles (and will sign copies of his insect cookbook) at “Bugs and Beer” on Taylor Street near the beer garden on Sunday.

In 2011, while hiking solo on a bow hunting trip, chef and outdoorsman, Eduardo Garcia spotted a dead bear. Nudging the carcass with his knife, he was shocked by 2,400 volts of electricity from a hidden power line. The jolt left nine exit wounds, and doctors told Garcia he was “a bag of bones with a heartbeat.” He was hospitalized for months with severe burns and surgeries to remove four ribs and his left hand. Such a disaster alters one’s world, we watch Garcia’s challenging and inspiring journey towards health, by returning to nature, the kitchen, and finding ways to give back.

Coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. A team of divers, photographers and scientists take us to coral reefs near Bermuda, Australia, and American Samoa to explore the devastating phenomenon. Spectacular cinematography tell the story more than words can with indisputable visual evidence of our distressed oceans. Zach Rago narrates our journey.

Before the food business became show business, one woman led the way. At over 90 years of age, Ella Brennan is both the inspirational matriarch of the extended Brennan family and the force of nature behind her New Orleans restaurant, the “Commander's Palace.” Some of the most famous restaurateurs and chefs, such as chef Emeril Lagass, New York restaurant magnate Danny Meyer and food critics Tim and Nina Zagat, credit the important role Ella has played in building and enhancing American cooking and hospitality. Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Leslie Iwerks, brings Ella’s remarkable story to the screen addressing Brennan’s challenges of being one of the few women to outwit and outplay a male dominated field.

Meet six people whose lives have been transformed by the ocean in different ways– gifted surfers challenging the most daunting waves in the world, a female open-water distance swimmer crossing most of the planet’s widest straits, a Hawaiian resident ocean diver and spear fisher who reached astounding depths as a very young girl. Stunning cinematography reflects the healing of Mother Nature for those who embrace her beaches and
oceans.

GOOD FORTUNE is a rags to riches tale of “conscious capitalism” pioneer, John Paul DeJoria. Born with nothing, at times homeless on the streets of East Los Angeles, "J.P." spent his early adulthood in and out of motorcycle gangs to wheel and deal his way to the top of a vast hair products company, Paul Mitchell and the Patron tequila empire. The son of immigrants, he defies the stereotype of 'the 1%'. As a billionaire, he believes in people, the planet and profit, in that order. His motto is "Success unshared is failure." Just try to walk out of this film and not have a renewed sense of joy and possibility!

Three National Geographic "Adventurers of the Year " embark on an insane kayaking mission in Greenland. With kite skis, they tow their white-water kayaks over 1000 km of Greenland ice cap glaciers and crevasses to be the first to run an Arctic river that they have only glimpsed on Google Earth. The 46-day expedition combines kiteboarding, skiing, camping, and kayaking and is fraught with injuries, disappointments and frigid weather. Their efforts are rewarded with stunning canyons of blue ice and the chance to paddle churning waterfalls that spit them into the Arctic Ocean.

No Man's Land is a detailed, on-the-ground account of the 2016 standoff between armed militants occupying Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and federal authorities. Fueled by the belief that control and management of public lands does not belong with the federal government, Ammon Bundy leads a the 41-day siege. The Filmmakers were granted remarkable access to insurrection as occupiers went about the daily business of engaging in an armed occupation. The film tells the story of those on the inside of the movement–the ideologues, the disenfranchised and the dangerously idealistic, attempting to uncover what draws Americans to the edge of revolution.

An exhilarating adventure traverses three 500-mile-long Alaska mountain ranges, Denali, Foraker, and Hunter on paragliders! When Gavin McClurg decided he wanted to push the boundaries, he could not have picked a more rugged, convoluted and downright burly route. In terrain where bears outnumber people, roads are non-existent and flying conditions change rapidly or are unknown, Gavin and his partner Dave Turner embark on the most remote and aggressive expedition ever attempted. North of Known features beautiful aerial shots of North America’s highest peaks as we go along for the ride.

Nova Scotian Barb Stegemann wanted to honor her closest friend; soldier, activist, and journalist Trevor Greene. While on a tour of duty in Afghanistan, Greene suffered a blow to the head with an axe by a Taliban member, leaving him wheelchair bound. Wanting to continue his mission in Afghanistan–to shift from growing illegal poppy to legitimate, sustainable and less deadly crops, Stegemann founded 7 Virtues, a perfume and essential oils company that buys rose and orange blossoms from Afghan farmers. We see her uphill battle as she challenges major retailers and financiers to take her altruistic ventures seriously. PERFUME WAR is a detailed look at war, trauma, business ethics, and an unlikely form of therapy.

Northwest School of the Arts, a public magnet school in Charlotte, N.C., is chosen to be the first high school permitted to perform The Color Purple. Under the leadership of theater arts teacher and director Corey Mitchell, students and faculty members are called on to work hard to bring the production to life and to do justice to the adult themes of the material. They also cope with issues in their own lives that mirror what they portray onstage. From auditions to opening night and beyond, the filmmakers follow these students and their teachers as they pursue their dreams. Watching these amazing kids grapple with presenting the story, we are inspired by the journeys of the students themselves—who not only find fulfillment in acting, singing, and dancing but also create paths forward in their lives after high school.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo–the all-male, drag ballet company was founded over 40 years ago on the heels of New York's Stonewall riots. The film juxtaposes exclusive, behind-the-scenes access and intimate, character-driven stories of its dancers, highlighted by amazing performances shot around the world. By mixing high art with clever camp, the talented drag ballerinas of this dance troupe bring ballet classics to stages worldwide. Rebels on Pointe ultimately celebrates our shared humanity through universal themes of identity, dreams, family, love, loss, determination and resilience... proving that a ballerina is not merely a woman dancing, but an act of revolution in a tutu.

Meet the men and women who make their living polishing shoes. From New York to Tokyo and beyond, Shiners travels the world to give you an insider’s view of an overlooked profession that provides for workers and their families. Packed with colorful characters and different perspectives and styles. Some love the job, some use it as a way to make ends meet with the hope for better lives for their children, and some believe it to be an art form that is underappreciated.

Inspirational and touching account of marathon runner and criminal court judge, Craig Mitchell. He creates a running club for a diverse array of men and women living in a homeless shelter on Skid Row, in downtown Los Angeles. Contrary to presumptions about the homeless, even those with criminal records, rarely do we witness such commitment and dedication. Mitchell and his runners go on to compete in international marathons.

A father refuses to accept a medical diagnosis that his severely autistic son will never walk or talk. Determined to change the expected trajectory of his son’s life, and that of other autistic children, he creates and coaches the “Jersey Hammerheads.” SWIM TEAM chronicles the overwhelming struggles and extraordinary triumphs of three young athletes with autism and demonstrates how sports, and in this case, a swim team, can ignite hope, independence, inclusion and triumph.

Distraught over the loss of his best friend after 9/11, John Ubaldo trades in his high finance career on Wall Street for 185 acres of land in Cambridge, NY to live a quiet life as a small farmer. His only goal is to raise delicious and nutritious food for himself and his extended network of family and friends. But John’s dream of living an uncomplicated traditional agrarian life gets complicated when he comes up against Big Agriculture and realizes that he’s not in sync with today’s prevailing methods. The very private farmer becomes a passionate and outspoken activist, helping to preserve small farms and rural America.

Launched 16 days apart in the autumn of 1977, the NASA’s twin Voyager space probes are perhaps humankind's greatest achievement. The probes have traveled 12 billion miles in 40 years, leaving our solar system behind for the vastness of interstellar space, the first human-made objects to do so. This powerful documentary celebrates these magnificent machines and the men and women who built them. The Farthest tracks the story of this visionary endeavor from its birth, past Mars to Jupiter and beyond, skillfully placing the mission within the context of its era. Interviews with experts including Carl Sagan illustrate the sheer magnitude of the project. Featuring stunning imagery from the Voyager probes, it is a genuinely cinematic adventure.

Follow a group of aspiring teenage astronauts as they attend the NASA Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama to reveal that a journey to Mars might be closer than we think. Since NASA’s first mission to Mars in 1964, humanity has seen the planet as the ideal target for the first interplanetary space mission. THE MARS GENERATION delves into space exploration’s history and looks beyond technology to what we will really need to get to the Red Planet: the power of youthful dreams. These self-proclaimed “space nerds” aspire to be the scientists, engineers, and technicians on whose shoulders humanity will reach Mars. Their infectious passion and optimism is the heart of the film, leaving little doubt that if given the support and opportunities they need, they will get us there.

It all begins with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, a child prodigy who performed for eight presidents and can be seen, in a great clip, upstaging Leonard Bernstein with a very serious face when he was just seven years old. “I’m always trying to figure out, at some level, who I am and how I fit in the world, which I think is something that I share with seven billion other people,” Yo-Yo Ma says early in the film. That curiosity led him to assemble the Silk Road Ensemble, a collective of some 50 musicians and other artists from across the globe. Academy Award-winning director, Morgan Neville takes us on a global journey with Ma and the Ensemble that truly delights the senses.

A Centennial history of the Pulitzer Prize, celebrate the importance of words and language in a free democracy. Pulitzer prizes have remained the gold standard of excellence on the best in literature, journalism, music and drama. Behind the honors are extraordinary people. Their stories are riveting: power, immigration, race and identity are all central themes. The Pulitzer at 100 includes the personal stories of winners from journalists Carl Bernstein and Thomas Friedman to writers Toni Morrison, Michael Chabon and Tony Kushner to beloved musicians Wynton Marsalis and David Crosby and more.

“Speaking the word suicide is not the problem, it’s the silence that so often surrounds it.” Words of insight from the eye-opening film THE S WORD. Suicide-attempt survivor, Dese’Rae Stage, is on a mission to find fellow survivors and document their stories of unguarded courage, insight and humor. Along the way, she discovers a community willing to transform personal struggles into action on a national level in the hope that those intimate stories will help prevent further tragedy.

Tribal Justice introduces us to a little known, underreported but effective criminal justice reform movement in America: the efforts of Native American Tribal courts to create alternative systems of justice. There are more than 300 Tribal courts across the country. In California, two formidable women lead the way. Abby Abinanti, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribe on the north coast, and Claudette White, Chief Judge of the Quechan Tribe in the southern desert, are creating innovative systems that focus on restoring rather than punishing offenders modeling restorative justice in action.

Juan Carlos ran away from an abusive home and lived on the streets of Mexico City for years before landing at a rural group home for runaway boys. IPODERAC is a place for abandoned, homeless children ages 6-18 that provides an education and job training, combined with life skills to be self-sufficient. IPODERAC employs caring guardians, has gardens, goats, an artisanal cheese factory and 71 brothers that we watch transform Juan Carlos from a victim to a leader. The care and love we see for him and each child we meet is evident in group interactions and activities, reminding us that children embrace love, change, and the challenge to meet the future head on.

Feature Narratives

A simple good deed leads to a nightmare for a young, newly married Palestinian schoolteacher named Layal, when, in the middle of the night, she is arrested in the occupied West Bank. She is "tried," and convicted of a crime by an Israeli military court, where the conviction rate is 99%. Layal is transferred to a high security Israeli women's prison for 8 years (3000 nights) where she confronts a disturbing world that has Palestinian political prisoners incarcerated with Israeli criminal inmates. The female friendships and shared energy that we encounter in the film somehow lessens the impact of the distressing events–¬leaving a glimmer of hope.

Anna is stuck and unhappy, she's approaching 30, living like a hermit in her mum's garden shed and trying to dodge the requests and demands that she get out of the shed and do something with her life. Mostly Anna tells her Mum to back off and leave her alone, while her beloved and perceptive grandmother watches the lunacy. Anna prefers to spend her days making videos using her thumbs as actors - thumbs that bicker about leaving the planet and what it all means. Then somehow she becomes embroiled with a troubled eight year old boy obsessed with Westerns and with Anna. This wonderful Australian comedy reminds us that we truly do need each other.

On a flight from California on 9/11, two protagonists both heading to New York meet and ultimately agree to embark on a cross-country road trip due to the cessation of air travel immediately following the Twin Towers attack. Real-life folk singers Joe Purdy and Amber Rubarth deliver realistic performances as two strangers who take on the impromptu road trip, discovering they share music and rediscovering the power of music to heal in the wake of tragedy. The film focuses on the landscape from state to state, the shared music and primarily the folks, normal and unusual, they meet on the way. This is not a film about 9/11, but rather, a treatise on the pulse of America when harmony and kindness were the prevailing
sentiments.

“Imagine you got one night to live, what would you do,” especially if you thought the whole world was being invaded? Brave New Jersey is a comedy based on a true story, that takes place in Lullaby, NJ, a town of 506. On Halloween night in 1938 radio listeners heard Orson Welles' deliver his legendary "War of the Worlds" broadcast which led millions to believe the U.S. was being invaded by Martians. Even though it may have been an evening of vivid entertainment for those in on the alien invasion joke, no one told the folks of Lullaby. So believing what they heard, the widespread hysteria creates some interesting adventures. The town folks react with surprising behavior that turns the typically idyllic community upside down and forces everyone to ask themselves some hard questions.

It’s 1946, David Berman and his friends, all Holocaust survivors, have only one purpose: to go to America as soon as possible. For this they need money. David puts together a team, (somewhat reminiscent of gang con-movie setups) and they concoct a business, using comical sales techniques to sell linens at outrageous markups to German “hausfraus.” Another of David’s strength is joke telling, which embroils him in yet another scheme. The film is a juxtaposition of comedy eclipsed by the deep-seated tragedy they had all shared.

Beautifully filmed across the heartland of America, a spunky yet unhappy bride runs away minutes before saying “I do”. Millie leaves her fiancé Charlie, at the altar with the help of her gutsy younger sister Emma, who has already prepared a “breakup package”. They drive away in Albert, Emma’s irascible jeep toward Gramma’s farm, and find a new perspective on their relationship and life in general. Different Flowers is a sweet and comedic treatise about learning to follow your heart. It’s a true breath of fresh air.

Boston in the 1920s. A young East Coast debutante is dating the most eligible bachelor in the world, John D. Rockefeller III. Her future seems set: a dream life in the upper echelons of society. But when she least expects it, she meets a young painter from one of the most beautiful places on Earth, Banff, Alberta in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The stunning cinematography is a delight. But the couples worlds are polar opposites. As their attraction and shared interest in painting and landscapes shakes up their lives, they soon face a universal question. Can you find "home" in another person? Inspired by a true story of the central couple, Peter and Catharine Whyte, of Banff.

Real-life brothers Wrya and Dana Ahmed, play two Kurdish little people in Iraq that are determined to do something “big,” to prove they are worthy of love and respect. They embark on a journey to Madrid to deliver a pair of handmade soccer shoes to real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Their journey takes us on a wild ride atop an ATV motorbike powering through warn torn Iraq, as they make their way to the Spanish Embassy in Baghdad for a travel visa. Their brotherly humor and banter amidst the dilemmas they encounter keeps us engaged and cheering for a positive outcome. We are given a glimpse at their ethic of loyalty and unabashed optimism, despite their struggle with discrimination.

Two meditations on love…paired with A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud, Karen Allen’s directorial debut. Her Magnum Opus is a creative depiction of life and friendships through dance, love, and artistic expression. The film illustrates a sweet story of a circle of friends who come together to dance and play, with love and celebration of their matriarch and mentor. Music, play, toys, and fun are shared, few words are needed.

One apartment in the city of Damascus, a mother of three attempts to keep her family and neighbors safe as war rages all around them. A sniper lies in wait outside her home. The kitchen is refuge for impending dangers, when bombing is heard, everyone rushes to the kitchen. The only chance of survival is to stay indoors. In Syria is a deeply touching story that lasts just 24 hours. We experience the interactions, exchanges, and altercations that humans are going through to protect themselves and their loved ones during such harrowing experiences.

Jasper Jones introduces a 14 year old bookish boy named Charlie Bucktin living in a small town in Western Australia. When Jasper Jones comes to his window to ask for help, Charlie's life is changed forever. He gets wrapped up in a mystery to find the killer of a young girl, while navigating in a new world of his own. The film is adapted from Craig Silvey’s novel of the same name published in 2009, often referred to as the Down Under version of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The film tackles themes of prejudice, class, justice, and death through the inquiring eyes of teenagers who take adult matters into their own hands.

Multiple stories come together as we watch the perils of online and social media activities. A couple of good guy hackers learn that their friend is being blackmailed for a lot of money, or else the blackmailer will expose an uncomfortable video to social media outlets. The “Moraler” is an infamously unidentifiable cyber bully who many believe is the mastermind behind other anti-establishment hacks. A calamitous street interaction results in yet another online hacker debacle. Both events set the good guys off on a search for cyber clarity. LIFE HACK is a totally relevant comedic, albeit cautionary tale about our digital privacy…or complete lack thereof.

Faye Banks lives in quiet desperation at a boring job, in an unexciting marriage. She secretly enters a competition to win the 25th seat on the first manned mission to Mars, but never expects to win. But when the one way trip becomes a reality, everything in her life is questioned. Does she take this fantastic opportunity or does it trigger her to alter her life as she knows it? Time to commit is running out, Faye must decide whether or not to leave this planet.

This film, most aptly name Irreplaceable in its native French, tells us a story of a kind, no-nonsense, firmly established country doctor, Jean-Pierre. He works grueling hours and is deeply dedicated to his community. His role often extends beyond simply overseeing the physical wellbeing of his patients. When he is diagnosed with an illness which demands he slows down, he needs to take on an associate or possibly, a replacement. Much to his dismay, he is sent the somewhat inexperienced Nathalie, who must run an uphill battle to gain the respect of this established doctor. The Country Doctor is a moving and funny character drama, that lets you walk out joyful for the experience.

The Hippopotamus is part comedy, part drama and mystery, mixed among a ration of drinking and carnal commotion. Drunken, has-been poet, Ted Wallace is summoned to his friend's country manor (ala Downton Abbey) to investigate a series of unexplained miracles. Using his fluid investigative skills, we watch Ted unravel some of the mysteriously conceived ideas claimed in Swafford Hall by Lord and Lady Logan. Rollicking adventure filmed on a beautiful countryside amid lush grounds.

Part history lesson, part heart-warming voyage of discovery, The Last Reel depicts the modern history of Cambodia via the Silver Screen of the past. A young rebellious teen named Sophoun flees her unstable home in Pnom Penh and an impending arranged marriage. She takes refuge in a decrepit movie theater where she stumbles upon a lost film from the pre-Khmer Rouge era. The lost film and the cinema she hides in help her expose a history and love story that directly affects her as the mysterious tale unfolds.

In The Light of the Moon, Stephanie Beatriz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Short Term 12 plays a successful architect named Bonnie who is assaulted while walking home from an evening out with friends in Brooklyn. Bonnie lives happily with her boyfriend Matt until this event alters her world. Sex and intimacy suffer as she battles her way back to resume control of her life. Her struggle to regain balance and a renewed sense of self touch on key social topics.

Under the Same Sun (Ek Surya Ke Taley) explores the mind of a confused young man, Karim Jamal, who accidentally falls into the hands of a group of Hindu and Muslim village children in the medieval town of Jaisalmer, near the border of India and Pakistan. As the village children welcome and nurture their injured desert guest, and include him into their family, Karim struggles with the true meaning of brotherhood and compassion, which compels him to rethink his purpose in life.

Documentary Shorts

When Tyler Dunning learned about the death of his best friend Nate Henn in a terror-related bombing in Uganda, he plunged into grief, anger and self-medication. He journeyed the scenic outdoors, at one point attempting to climb a peak in the Rockies. Though that venture was unsuccessful, it ultimately led him on a quest to visit all 59 national parks which became his purpose and his peace.

This calming film takes place in the Olympic National Park. Gordon Hempton is an Emmy Award-winning acoustic ecologist. "Silence is the think tank of the soul," he says. For much of his life, he traveled around the world in search of sound. In recent years, an ever increasing intrusion of noise pollution from human activity has interfered with his work. See and hear his thoughts about the loss of quiet places on Earth due to the clamor.

Leighan Falley soars above the glaciers and peaks of the Alaska Range like a raven. Her daughter Skye is strapped into the backseat of her de Havilland Beaver. As a former climber, skier, and mountain guide, becoming a mother required Leighan to balance her life and find a way to reconcile her adventurous spirit with the demands of parenthood. She decided she would learn to fly! Coming from a long line of aviators, she now works as a commercial pilot in Talkeetna, Alaska. We get a glimpse into the life of an Alaskan pilot, skier, alpinist and mother.

El Hara poetically explores how the places we grow up haunt who we become. For more than 700 years, thousands of Jews lived in the Islamic city of Tunis, in a neighborhood called El Hara. Its most celebrated resident was a Tunisian writer of the twentieth century, Albert Memmi. His experience as a colonized subject and the acute nostalgia he felt for his city of birth ring familiar to anyone who has left their homeland to make a “better” life elsewhere. In 2016, there are no Jews living in El Hara. Traces of the Jewish community in Tunis are faint, their imprint upon the social and political landscape hardly visible.

In the past, if you didn’t grow your own food or find it yourself, you didn’t eat it. Today our food is hyper-global: wherever you are, you can get your food from any corner of the world. What might a return to hyper-localism look like today, since /more than half the world’s population live in cities? This film takes filmmakers, Matt and Lars, on an adventure to find out. They challenge themselves to serve a four-course meal for eight people - using only ingredients grown, caught, or foraged from within the five boroughs of New York City.

Fix and Release explores a small turtle trauma center in Ontario, Canada as it fights to even the odds for survival that freshwater turtles face in a modern world. Sadly some of those odds include staying alive under the duress of car and boat accidents. Watch surgery performed lovingly by passionate people that care for these precious creatures. Visually beautiful, it shows turtles in a way that few have seen before.

Long Live the Kings began 30 years ago as a single project in a remote coastal watershed. They have expanded throughout the Pacific Northwest and into Canada. In this film, we see their work as they study, monitor, and affect salmon movement around the Hood Canal bridge and throughout the Salish Sea. For all these years, their guiding principle has remained the same: the future of salmon is in our hands.

Finnish freediver Johanna Nordblad awes us with the length of time she can stay in the silent world under the ice. She discovered her love for the sport through a required cold-water treatment after a downhill biking accident almost took her leg. Johanna holds the world record for a 50 meter free dive.

Artistic composition comprised of a powerful arrangement as a man dances through a subway, while we listen to an interview with a former African American slave. The juxtaposition of past and present raises questions about inherited trauma and the possibility of rebirth.

Wonderfully comical animated film by and about Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, Christine Choy. We experience her crazy adventure when she illegally smuggles her beloved cigarettes out of Toronto.

Meet a gentle young woman who chooses to live life differently than most, as she brings back the art of photography from times past. Lindsey became interested in a process called wet plate collodion when she viewed a collection of early 20th century prisoner mug shots. She began working with the unique materials and process in her photography in 2010. The work requires a presence and intimacy that connects her to both the physical and spiritual world.

Will Harris, pioneering farmer in rural Georgia and owner of White Oak Pastures, tells us the story of his evolution from industrial farmer, where he saw cattle only in the amount of dollars he could generate from pounds of beef, to a sustainable farmer interested in humane agricultural and environmental stewardship. The hundred thousand beating hearts refers to the countless animals he cherishes and nurtures on his ranch and the lives they have restored back into the environment.

We meet Brad Gobright, a 27 years old who is one of the best and boldest free solo rock climbers in the sport. He’s been climbing since he was 7 years old, and his world is consumed with the next cliff or rock formation to conquer. The sheer cliffs that we experience in the film are nearly as much a feat of the photographer as they are of the climber. Incredible footage of this powerful young man with no attached ego for his astonishing feats.

Slacklining to many is a mystery, a line where impossible and possible collide. Highlining is even scarier! For Terry Acomb it’s all simply a way of life. He is an enthusiast who has pioneered the sport in North America and is doing everything it takes to spread the passion. SLACKER takes us inside Terry’s life, uncovering his fundamental role in the slackline community and what it takes to be a part of it.

We meet four compelling women who are the winners of the 2016 CUBADISCO Award for best vocal group. They are the Vocal Vidas, an a cappella quartet from Santiago de Cuba - the cradle of Afro-Cuban music. Soy Cubana introduces us to their unique sound in wonderful acoustic locations. It tells the story of crafting a musical career in a society where artistic merit is not measured solely by economic success.

Artist Mac Premo asked what can be repurposed and what can be made out of trash? After seeing some beautiful skateboards made of precious woods, he wondered if one could be made out of trash, and then maybe given to kids who otherwise wouldn't have skateboards. Mac then made this film which shows the process and inspiration behind the first Bucket Board.

In January 2017, the USA Rafting Team set their sights on breaking the speed record on the
Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. One major obstacle–they needed to design, architect, and build the 48-foot custom boat they would use to break the record. The film follows these regular guys trying to do something extraordinary—rowing 280 miles in less than 40 hours in one of the world’s most beautiful settings on a boat they built themselves.

Narrative Shorts

A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. is based on the short story by Carson McCullers. Karen Allen makes her directing debut with this tender film depicting a Zen-like encounter of wisdom passing from an older man to a young boy when they meet by chance in the early morning hours at a roadside café in 1947.

Shorts Programs

This program highlights characters we admire, whether they are facing adversity and rising above their challenges, or choosing a different path than originally imagined. We meet refugees and see their opportunities, some receive life-changing gifts, plus we get a look at a rare master of a craft we don’t usually see. We are inspired by these folks and hope you will be too! (76 min)

Irnik is the two-year-old son of an Arctic mother and a Montreal father, a man who teaches him to cherish the traditional Inuit culture and all its life-expanding adventures.

Zain’s Summer: From Refugee to American Boy
USA I 2016 I 13 min
Director: Joshua Seftel

Zain, a thirteen-year-old refugee from Pakistan’s violence, has only the summer to learn enough English to enter public school in the fall. With his winning smile, his clean-cut All-American looks, and his prowess at Michael Jackson moonwalking, don’t bet against him.

The Mender
USA I 2016 I 13 min
Director: Greg Leslie

In a quiet room in the Seattle Public Library, Donald Vass—part artist, part hermit—toils at a craft from another age: he repairs and restores aged books. And they, in their turn, teach him their secrets.

A Way Forward
Kenya, USA I 2016 I 6 min
Director: Jacob Seigel-Boettner

Girls in Kenya who live a long way from their school find a path to academic fulfillment through their mothers’ passionate encouragement—and through the gift of a bicycle.

Chocolate Spokes
USA I 2015 I 6 min
Director: Brendan Leonard

Bowties and bicycles, oh and chocolate too! Meet Gregory Crichlow who left his architecture job in 2011 to start a bicycle shop in Five Points, Denver. He loves hand-building steel bicycle frames, but repairs keep his shop open and thriving. And he does it all in bowtie style!

Bayard & Me
USA I 2016 I 16 min
Director: Matt Wolf

This film, narrated gracefully by Bayard Rustin’s partner—lover, husband, son—is both a depiction of last century’s gay rights struggles on the streets of New York City and a vivid portrait of the charismatic civil rights activist himself.

High Chaparral
USA I 2016 I 7 min
Director: David Freid

Gutsy families from Syria, where violence and devastation are all too real, find temporary shelter in a Swedish theme park, which ironically portrays the glorified mayhem of American Western movies.

For the past four years, Jon Gann, founder of the DC Shorts and Sunderland Shorts Film Festivals, has brought a selection of films from Wash, DC in a program called WA2WA. Through his recent work at festivals around the globe, Jon has collected a series of award-winning and audience-praised short films specifically for the warm, welcoming, and sophisticated film lovers of PTFF. (96 min)

He and She
Germany I 2015 I 16 min
Director: Marco Gadge

After being dumped, a distraught man finds solace from of an older woman in a gas station convenience store.

German with English Subtitles

Oddball
USA I 2016 I 5 min
Director: Joshua Moore

A creative profile on Stephen Parr, the oddball behind San Francisco's Oddball Films.

Scent of Geranium
USA I 2016 I 5 min
Director: Naghmeh Farzaneh

Immigration is a new chapter in one's life, a chapter with unexpected events that can take one's life down paths different from the one imagined.

Watu Wote: All of Us
Germany I 2016 I 22 min
Director: Katja Benrath

An atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust between Muslims and Christians has grown in Kenya. In December 2015, Muslim bus passengers showed that solidarity can prevail.

Swahili with English Subtitles

Shy Guys
USA I 2016 I 8 min
Director: Fredric Lehne

Two strangers confront and resolve one of the most insidious scourges afflicting mankind - while standing at a public urinal.

The Talk True Stories about the Birds and the Bees
Canada I 2016 I 9 min
Director: Alain Delannoy

Using a mix of animation styles, the memories of several individuals have been tenderly recreated in order to best present the awkwardness of one of life's strangest occurrences.

The Counselor
USA I 2016 I 11 min
Director: Guy Bauer

At a crisis center in late 1971, a freshly minted counselor on the late shift takes his first call: a suicidal teenager whose parents won’t let her come home for Christmas.

Short narrative films from France, Australia, and the US demonstrate that film is a universal language. Each filmmaker has crafted a story that will move, provoke, and delight you with a unique tale captured in a minimal time frame. A team of local reviewers gave thumbs up to these gems that stood out from over 100 films submitted in the category this year. We hope you will enjoy them as much as we did. (90 min)

Roomy 4Runner
USA I 2017 I 12 min
Director: Andrew Charles Dunn

There are possibilities to the car rental business that Avis and Hertz have never dreamed of. Could this be a solution to the affordable housing crisis?

Gorilla
France I 2016 I 15 min
Director: Tibo Pinsard

What does it take to win the attention of a beautiful woman? Perhaps a man needs to tap into his inner gorilla. After all, it worked for King Kong...

Not One Of Us
USA I 2017 I 9 min
Director: Bill Jarcho

This animated parable of the discovery of peaceful lands by diverse societies asks the question, who is “us?”

Bluey
Australia I 2015 I 14 min
Director: Darlene Johnson

A young woman living in a world of lawless violence, but her world is transformed by a mentor who teaches discipline and boxing.

Exposure
USA I 2016 I 7 min
Director: Dave Katz, Colin Crilley

The stirring words of Theodore Roosevelt call a rugged woodsman to dare great heights, where he must face the ultimate question: what now?

The Patron
France I 2016 I 20 min
Director: Lionel Auguste

The arts have often been supported by complicated and even tawdry motives. Sex, surprises, mystery and betrayal¬¬–all for the sake of the arts?

French with English Subtitles

Card Shark
USA I 2016 I 6 min
Director: Rex Carter

Sometimes when the stakes are high in a hand of poker and something looks fishy—well, things can take a violent turn.

Le Drone Rouge
USA I 2017 I 7 min
Director: Marcus McCollum

Just as in the French classic Red Balloon, a whimsical red drone engages a child in charming and fantastic adventures.